Off to a flying new start
Manchester trio release their first album following a long time away
With baleful single There Goes The Fear and charttopping second album The Last Broadcast, Doves made definitive Brit Rock for the 21st century’s first decade.
But as they recorded their fourth album, Kingdom of Rust, in 2009, the Manchester trio, comprising twins Jez and Andy Williams and frontman Jimi Goodwin were coming apart.
“A lot of people were dealing with personal issues I can’t really go into,” Jez recalls. “Just typical things – it’s hard being in a band, sometimes.
“In your twenties, everyone’s pulling in the same direction and willing to make sacrifices and compromises. And then, the older you get, it’s like, ‘I can’t listen to him eat an apple again!’” The Universal Want, the first Doves’ album in 11 years, is a suitably dignified return.
They worked on the thoughtful, groove-filled and impassioned songs gradually as they returned to working together.
After a show near Doves’ HQ in Warrington, the band’s big public live return came at a Teenage Cancer Trust show at The Albert Hall in spring 2019.
Jez says: “We weren’t entirely sure if the audience was going to be standoffish, but it was like a jet engine taking off, that gig. It was humbling.”
The pandemic has ensured that for now the mighty jet engine of a Doves’ live show remains grounded. But The Universal Want’s title track reestablishes the band’s questing spirit.
“I always liked the title, the feeling that you collectively want something but it might be misconceived,” says Jez. “It seemed to chime with the idea of yearning.”
Timely enough – and the title track ends in a full-scale rave-up, a nod to Doves’ dance roots in their former incarnation as Hacienda-era outfit Sub Sub.
“It IS a tribute to our past,” Jez agrees. “At the time I thought, ‘ It’s a bit cheeky this one’. You know when something is working in the studio. When we were writing, massaging the song and we kind of looked at each other when we went into that... is this right? That’s a good sign.”
While Doves went on hiatus, the Williams twins operated as Black Rivers, and Goodwin released a solo album.
“Our last gig was at Manchester Warehouse Project in 2010 and then we never phoned each other. We never said we were splitting, but we knew we wanted a break,” reveals Jez.
“This album wouldn’t have happened unless we had that decade break.”
The Universal Want is released next Friday
This album wouldn’t have happened without that decade break